>> Hello, my name is Jeremy Johnson
and I am so excited to tell you about this supernatural story,
how, a time a guy named Cardboard
changed how I view God.
I was a college student, last year of my college,
trying to train to be a pastor at a church,
and we had this drama team that, every once in a while
we'd travel out and do events. Sometimes I would preach,
sometimes I would be a part of the drama ministry.
And there's a ministry in Los Angeles, California,
that was doing an event in Hollywood,
and they called us and they said,
We're blocking off the streets in Hollywood
and we need a drama team. Our drama team has dropped out.
We heard about your drama team at Bethany College.
And so me and the crew, we got together
and we drove down to Los Angeles, California.
It was so exciting.
We got there and they had set up this huge event,
there was a giant stage, there was screens and lights
and people were there.
They were giving out hot dogs, hot dogs and Sunny Select sodas.
They had planned to give out about 5000 that day.
Every year they do this event. And so this year it was packed.
There was people coming from everywhere,
right there on the streets of Hollywood.
You could imagine what you hear about Hollywood,
but this ministry was right in the cuts of that area
and just ministering to people, touching people's lives,
giving them food, and there was worship throughout the day
and different speakers, and we were going to go on last.
It was getting dark and the crowd was gathering.
I can tell you, man, the fear and excitement to share that day
was, was almost overwhelming.
It was just so exciting seeing all the people there
that I believed were going to receive Jesus.
We had written this drama that was amazing
and I had a message to give that was burning in my spirit.
We did the drama and the crowd was there, I mean,
these, these people were straight off the streets.
These people, some were homeless,
some were just passerby or some were people
from out of town and tourists. And they were all there.
And we did the drama. The drama went amazing.
I actually was playing Jesus in the drama
and I had at that time I had short hair,
so I had weaved dreads into my head
to look a little bit more like Jesus.
So I'm up there and I'm just thinking, Dear God,
just don't let any of these dreads fall out of my head,
you know, in front of these people.
And so we're doing the whole drama and after the drama,
I was going to give up and get up
and give a message of hope to everyone.
And so as soon as the drama was over,
I felt like we had the people in the palm of our hands.
I got up there to give the message,
and as soon as I grabbed the mic to speak,
I said about three words and on my third word in the mic
started shorting and cutting out.
And, you know, as a speaker,
we, we both love and hate technology.
You know, it helps amplify your voice,
but it can go wrong all the time.
And so the mic was going wrong,
so I thought maybe someone will hand me another mic,
someone handed me another mic, that mic wouldn't work.
And I look over at the sound guy and the sound guy is sweating,
he's, you know, plugging in cables, pushing buttons.
There was no getting his attention.
He was just like stressed out.
And we realized the sound has completely shut off.
There were some older ladies there,
they started anointing the speakers with oil.
We had people praying.
Ten minutes went by, 20 minutes went by,
30 minutes went by, with each minute obviously,
you know, people started leaving.
We did this whole event, this whole drama,
all this worship, all this stuff,
and the, the whole point was to give the gospel message.
Well, as people started leaving,
the crowd was down to really just the volunteers.
And I remember, just kind of mad at God,
frustrated at God, disappointed.
Here we are praying, here we are,
we did all this work, God, we did all this stuff.
And I remember sitting on the edge of the stage
and saying, probably the stupidest prayer
I've ever said in conversation with God.
And I said, God, if you don't want these people saved,
then fine, I don't care either.
And I just kind of got in this attitude
and I looked over at the guy cooking the hot dogs,
a couple last hot dogs there,
and I was hungry and I thought, Man, I don't want a hot dog
and I don't want a sunny select soda.
And I looked across the street and I saw McDonald's.
And as a young adult in college,
I was fully addicted to McDonald's.
And I just said, Man, that's what I want.
I want McDonald's. So I walked across the street
to go get some McDonald's, kind of pouting
because God didn't answer my prayer.
And as I was walking into McDonald's,
I tripped over what I thought was trash
or some kind of blanket on the ground.
And as I tripped over this thing,
this person popped out of the blanket and started yelling.
And he said, My name is Cardboard.
And I said, okay, okay. Kind of took me off guard
because I thought it was just like a blanket on the ground.
And I kind of jumped back.
I was a little, I never met anyone named Cardboard,
first of all.
And this guy was obviously drunk.
He was on the ground. He was homeless.
And as a person from a small town coming into Los Angeles,
I mean, I felt lost there from the moment I stepped in there,
I just kind of scurried away and ran into McDonald's.
I ordered my Big Mac, my large fry and my Coke zero.
And as I was leaving McDonald's with my, with my food,
I walked past cardboard again but this time I kind of, kind of
went further away from cardboard.
And as I was walking past, for the first time,
I heard the voice of the Lord.
I mean, I had been praying for a straight hour
as a young adult asking for God to do this miracle
and he didn't answer.
And then out of nowhere, as I'm walking back with my McDonald's,
I feel and hear the voice of the Lord say,
Jeremy, go give cardboard this meal.
And I did what any great believer
would do in that moment.
I said, Get behind me, Satan, in the name of Jesus, you foul -
no, I just kept walking because I was like,
it couldn't have been God.
I mean, I don't think that was it.
This is my McDonald's. That was just me.
And as you know, when the Lord speaks to you,
it gets stronger and stronger and stronger.
And so as I was almost across the street,
I just felt like I got to go back,
I got to go give this meal to Cardboard.
So I went back and I tapped Cardboard on the shoulder.
He woke up in disarray and I just said,
Hey, man, I wanted to give you this Big Mac, large fry,
and I also got a Coke Zero and I just left it there.
I started walking away, and as I was walking away,
I heard this man, Cardboard, weeping.
So I turned around and I saw in his tears
were these giant elephant tears.
He was just weeping there with, with the meal.
And I thought, well, maybe,
maybe he doesn't like McDonald's.
Maybe, you know.
And so the curiosity killed me, I had to go back up to Cardboard
and say, Cardboard, please tell me what's going on.
Why are you, why are you weeping?
He said, he said, you're not, you're not going to understand.
You're not going to. You're not going to.
And then when he looked at me,
he realized that I was the guy on the stage and he said,
You're that guy. I said, I'm that guy.
I don't - what do you mean? That guy said, You're the guy.
You're the guy that was on the, you're the guy.
You're the guy. I said, Oh, man, I'm sorry.
You know, yeah, it didn't work. He goes, No, no, no, no, no.
I don't think you understand. He said, he said,
Hey, my, my real name is Samuel.
He said, A couple of years ago I lost my job and that church
that comes out here every year to do this event,
I used to go to that church, but when I, I lost my job,
they couldn't help me and me and my family,
we ended up out here. Eventually, my family left
and I just kind of built a house out of cardboard
and I got the name Cardboard. But my real name is Samuel.
And in between tears, he began to tell me the story.
He said, while, while the day went on,
I just, I just said, God, you don't love me.
You don't care about me.
And he said, when I was saying that,
I heard a voice and the voice told me
to climb to the top of that building.
He pointed to a building behind the stage where I just was,
and he said, See that window that's open?
He said, I climbed up to there and the voice told me,
God doesn't love you.
When this guy speaks tonight, jump.
So the, the voice told you to jump?
I said, Cardboard, why didn't you jump? He said
When I climbed out the window, I saw you coming up to speak.
And when I got to the edge, your mic shut off.
I said, Yeah, I remember that. And he said,
When your mic shut off, I didn't know what to do
so I just came in and I sat in the corner of that top room.
And he said, I heard another voice,
and the other voice said Samuel, ask me for anything.
He said, okay, God, if that's you,
I want that guy to bring me a Big Mac,
a large fry and a Coke.
I'm going to wait right over there.
You see, I had no clue that day
that what I thought was God missing it and messing up
was God actually doing the only thing that we all needed to do,
which was to reach Cardboard with his love.
You know, it's crazy to think about that day
I got to lead Cardboard to the Lord.
I got to lead him in the sinner's prayer.
I got to share with him about how much God loves him,
but I couldn't help to think about how much God loves me.
See, because the God that we serve,
He doesn't see crowds.
That day I saw a crowd. That day I was one in a crowd.
That day we cooked 5000 hot dogs.
That day we, we got donated 5000 sunny select sodas.
That day we all volunteered.
I had dreads weaved into my head.
I learned a drama that the person
who I would minister to would never watch.
I prepared a sermon I would never give.
Not for crowds, not for thousands.
We didn't do it all for 5000 people
that would hear the gospel. We did all of that,
all the stage, all the lights, all the bands,
our trip down to Los Angeles. All of it wasn't for 5000,
it was for one guy who had forgot his name.
It's interesting that his name was Samuel,
because in the Bible there was a young man named
Samuel who God kept calling
and he kept thinking God was talking to someone else
or someone else was talking to him.
And finally he had to say, God, here I am. I'm listening.
And it was so powerful to be a part of that story.
But it's even more powerful to know
that the God of the universe always sees the one,
He sees the one, He doesn't see crowds,
He sees the one. He does everything for the one.
He went to the cross and he died for the one.
He felt my pain.
He felt my shame. He took my place.
And if he took my place you need to know that he took your place.
Maybe you're watching this right now
and you feel like Cardboard and you're like,
God, I don't even believe you're real.
There's another voice telling you to end your life,
to, that God's not real.
And I'm just telling you, God is speaking to you today.
He's saying to you today that if I love
Cardboard at zero, that I love you at zero.
Cardboard wasn't looking for God,
He wasn't expecting God, but God showed up to him.
And today, I don't know what you're going through,
I don't know what you're walking through,
but God does.
And yeah, this video is being played for thousands,
but God doesn't care about thousands.
He cares about one. He wants to save one.
He wants to renew one.
His love is powerful enough to shut off all the sound
and ruin all man's plans to keep his plan in place.
And maybe you're feeling like plans have been ruined
and you're frustrated with where you're at, and God
is saying I'm creating room for myself.
I'm doing a miracle right now.
I just want you right where you're at.
If you need that Jesus, see, the Jesus
that I serve did not come to make bad people good,
he came to make dead people live.
He came to not just die for me, to die as me.
He is the Messiah that Isaiah talks about.
He was despised and rejected and he felt everything you feel
so that he could connect to your pain
and bring about your healing.
If you're there right now and you need that,
you need that death to life experience,
you need the greatest miracle
that could ever happen to happen for you,
I want you just to put out your hands and close your eyes
and I want to pray over you. And also I want to pray
over those people that need to, again,
see the Cardboards that are, that have gotten
caught up in the crowd
and the bigness of the call that you've missed the one,
the person you pass every day at the, at the grocery store
or the person that's serving your coffee,
the one who, although they're broken
and maybe, maybe you're not going to bring them to church,
maybe you're going to bring them to Jesus
and then bring them to church. I want to pray over both of you.
I want to pray over those that are saying I need life
and those that are saying I need to have new eyes again.
I want God's eyes.
I want God's eyes to see the person that no one sees.
God, I just pray right now for those that are receiving you.
I pray right now, God, we just pray all sin, all shame,
we give it to you, and God we invite you into our life
and God we invite you into our story.
Thank you for dying for us. Thank you for taking our place.
Thank you for coming.
God be my Lord and my Savior in Jesus name.
And for those that have missed the Cardboards,
those that are looking for the bigness of the stage
but have missed, Lord, have missed the crowd,
God you did your best miracles in the crowd.
Lord it was never on the stage that you did your miracles.
It was in the crowd.
You walk slow through the crowd. God
Let us walk slow through the crowd
so we don't miss the woman with the issue of blood,
so we don't miss the Samuel that will change many. God
Thank you. God awaken us again to have your eyes in Jesus name.
Amen. Amen. Bless you.